I imagine everyone reading this is familiar with those “life checklists,” those lists of things you want to do in your life. Whether written down or merely stuck up in your head, I imagine everyone has them. Be it “learn Japanese,” or “eat a grasshopper,” we all have those things that we either want to do once, or make it an ingrained habit to do them. Personally, I’m trying to read more generally, read more poetry, and bring my life into some semblance of order (it’s going slow).

I’ve also really wanted to go see the local symphony perform. I haven’t always desired to do this, but it’s been on my mind for a couple years, especially since I’ve become enraptured with Mozart. There’s just something about his work that gets to me; moreso even than other classical composers. I don’t know what it is. Last year I believe they performed his Mass in C Minor (which is astounding) and my roommate and I had talked about going but never did.

This year they had Mozart’s Requiem on the bill, and we just couldn’t pass it up. Season tickets in hand, we headed downtown to the Kansas City Lyric Theater, got our seats, and experienced something that I daresay everyone should attempt to at least once in their life. It helps that the Requiem is my absolute favorite piece by Mozart. I suppose I might not have been so happy with a piece I was less familiar with (understanding the Latin pays off), but still, it would probably be worth it. The sound was incredible, and deeply moving.

The requiem mass is something that I don’t think you can be experience as a Christian and not be touched. Not being an expert, I think they mostly follow similar patterns in which types of movements they have (Kyrie, Domine Jesu, Benedictus, etc) but I’m not sure if the actual lyrics are similar or the same at all. I know that Mozart’s Requiem has much soteriological content, directly referencing God’s righteous judgement and how the “damned” will be “cast away” and “consigned to the searing flames.”

I especially like one section of the Domine Jesu where you have the four soloists (soprano, alto, tenor, and bass) singing this in a round:

Sed signifer, sanctus Michael repraesentet eas in lucem sanctam	But let the holy standard-bearer Michael bring them into the holy light

And then the low end of the male chorus comes in with:

Quam olim Abrahae promisisti et semini ejus, et semini ejus	As once you promised to Abraham and to his seed.

It always makes my hair stand on end, and not just because it sounds really cool, but also because of the content. That Amadeus guy really knew what he was doing.

I also learned something interesting from our trip: do not go at 2pm on a Sunday. You see, shows are 3 days over the weekend, Friday night, Saturday night and Sunday afternoon. If you are a hip young kid you had better go on Friday or Saturday, if you’re normally asleep at those times on Friday and Saturday, go on Sunday. That seems to be the general case because I think my roommate and I were just about the only people there under 50. We sat near the very back and looking out the audience was a veritable sea of white hair. Not that that’s a bad thing. The nice lady next to me only fell asleep once and it was during one of the early pieces (Messiaen’s L’Ascension).

It’s also important to note that if your asthma is acting up and you have a cold (as I did), you will spend a lot of time forcing yourself not to cough. It’s an interesting experiment, but I don’t recommend it to anyone out there. You’ve got maybe just a couple seconds in between each movement that you can cough, gently, and also into a hankerchief. My big, honking coughing fits had to wait till we got outside the theater.